A Critic’s Review Of The Bold and the Beautiful: That Rearview Mirror’s Looking A Bit Blurry

When it comes to The Bold and the Beautiful, every fan has their own opinion – and Soap Hub is no different. For five days, we sat and watched the good, the bad, and everything in between, and now we offer you a handy review, and a cheeky critique, of B&B’s week that was.

The Bold and the Beautiful: A Critic’s Week In Review

Among my many duties here at Soap Hub is compiling the Weekly Recaps article for The Bold and the Beautiful. It’s an easy feat considering the repetitive and uninspired plotting.

Whether it’s a Monday, a Tuesday, a Wednesday, etc., etc. I find myself writing a variation of: Steffy Forrester Finnegan (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) issues a plea for her father to reunite with her mother, [insert character name] and [insert character name] discuss Thomas Forrester’s (Matthew Atkinson) refusal to return Douglas Forrester (Django Ferri) to Hope Logan Spencer (Annika Noelle) — usually one of those being Hope’s husband, Liam Spencer (Scott Clifton), Deacon Sharpe (Sean Kanan) wastes his time warning Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown) not to pine for a life wherein she, John “Finn” Finnegan (Tanner Novlan), and wee Hayes are one big happy family, [insert character name] disparages Brooke Logan Forrester (Katherine Kelly Lang) and sings the praises of Taylor Hayes (Krista Allen), and either Brooke and Taylor or Hope and Steffy have a set-to over [insert reason for set-to].

It’s all ridiculous, déjà vu, and nausea-inducing fluff made even more so by Brad Bell’s insistence on ignoring The Bold and the Beautiful’s cannon — a cannon to which he himself has been contributing for more than two decades. I can understand a novice head writer getting easily verifiable facts wrong, but I expect more from the man who came up with the story in the first place.

For instance, Ridge Forrester (Thorsten Kaye) takes the blame for being a selfish jerk and failing to reunite his family when he had the chance. Um, granted Ridge is a selfish jerk, but anybody who was watching back when Taylor made her second return from the dead knows that Ridge CHOSE HER OVER BROOKE and it was the revelation that Taylor had devirginized James Warwick (Ian Buchanan) — not to mention her smoochy smooch with Hector Ramirez (Lorenzo Lamas) — that derailed their (re)union. [So I guess that Taylor would cheat on Ridge and break his heart. Maybe somebody should inform Steffy and Thomas.]

And I am so sick of hearing the position that Brooke pursued Ridge throughout his marriage(s) to Taylor, not the least of which is because I find myself having to defend Brooke who I frequently find to be so dense as to be undefendable.

Brooke involved herself with Connor Davis (Scott Thompson Baker) and James during Ridge’s first go around with Taylor, had a short-lived marriage to Grant Chambers (Charles Grant), then completely left Ridge in her rearview mirror to make a real go of it with Thorne Forrester (Winsor Harmon). Later on, there was Deacon (Sean Kanan)…and Nick Marone (Jack Wagner)… And sure, every time that Taylor supposedly died Brooke was right there to try again with her “destiny” but when Taylor would pop back up, it was always Doc whom Ridge chose.

I remember it, the majority of you Bold and the Beautiful fans remember it, and I’m sure that Brad Bell remembers it too — he did write it after all — it’s just that he clearly doesn’t care because that doesn’t fit the narrative that he wants to spin in the here and now. I can’t say that that is a quality that I would want in head writer.

Further B&B Musings

* Though Bridget (Ashley Jones), Rick (Jacob Young), and RJ (Anthony Turpel) got lip service, I couldn’t help but notice that Thomas didn’t include Jack in his list of Brooke’s offspring. Is Jack yet another thing that Brad Bell would like us to forget?

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